69th & Elmwood Streets, Philadelphia PA 19142
© John Mayer,
Workshop of the
World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
Built beginning in 1921 as a
branch of General Electric's huge manufacturing
interests, this facility eventually included over
one-and-a-half million square feet of shop space and
employed over 7,500 workers. The original product of this
plant was high-voltage switching and circuit breaker
devices. 1
The manufacturing activities at the Elmwood facility
expanded continuously through the early 1970s and
eventually included high-, medium-, and low-voltage
circuit protection equipment.
The oil embargo of the 1970s caused a dramatic
contraction of business. During a ten-year period the
work force was reduced to its current level of around 450
employees, some operations were transferred to other GE
facilities, and one million square feet of plant space
was demolished (1984).
Today the factory produces replacement parts for switch
gear, a "network protector," basically a high-voltage
circuit breaker for power transmission grids, and
components for gas turbine auxiliary units. The plant
includes a foundry, a plating department and machine
shop.
1 General Electric
Company, Switchgear
People, (Philadelphia, 1974); also,
telephone interview with Chuck Fulton, Plant Manager,
December 7, 1989.
Update May
2007 (by
Joel Spivak):
Demolished.